Thomas Zorbach & Jürgen Pfeffer

Pizza Talk IV: Fighting Back Shitstorms With An Army of Superfans

SUNBELT XXXVI, APRIL 6TH 2016, NEWPORT BEACH, CA

http://www.techinsider.io/star-wars-collectors-from-around-the-world-2015-12

About me

Company vm-people, Berlin University Karlshochschule International University

Research focus New Media Culture

Pizza Talks at Sunbelt:e.g. Impact of Online-Influencers

THOMAS ZORACH – PRACTITIONER, LECTURER, RESEARCHER

We all have a fan-gene ...

http://www.people.com/article/world-cup-fans-photos-brazil http://www.techinsider.io/star-wars-collectors-from-around-the-world-2015-12

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/fillipino-lady-gaga-fans-fight-back-against-anti-l#.dojYb07We http://www.scoopnest.com/user/MoneyWeek/615581098974834688

Motivation2014 WAS CITED „YEAR OF OUTRAGE“ BY SLATE MAGAZINE

Definition

“An Online-Firestorm is a phenomenon that describes the sudden discharge of large quantities of negative word of mouth and complaint behavior against a person, company, political institution or group in social media networks, often paired with intense indignation that has shifted its focus from an actual point of criticism.

SOCIAL MEDIA CRISIS: ONLINE-FIRESTORMS AKA SHITSTORMS

Pfeffer, J. & Zorbach, T. & Carley, K.M. (2013). Understanding online firestorms: Negative word of mouth dynamics in social media networks. Journal of Marketing Communications

Agenda

Research questions

1.  What are superfans and how to identify them in social media?

2.  Is it possible to measure their alleviating role in a social media crisis?

PIZZA TALK IV: FIGHTING BACK SHITSTORMS WITH AN ARMY OF SUPERFANS

Case studyVOLKSWAGEN EMISSION SCANDAL

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2015/09/29/cost-of-volkswagens-emissions-scandal-at-least-11-billion-analysts-say/

#dieselgate: The crisis unfolds•  September 18th – 28th 2015

•  More than 2 Million Tweets in only 10 days*

•  Peak on September 23rd marks CEO Martin Winterkorn‘s resignation

•  Curve shows typical pattern

* http://www.visibrain.com/

http://www.visibrain.com/en/blog/volkswagen-dieselgate-crisis-twitter-analysis

#dieselgate: The Fan-Force strikes back•  At the peak of the crisis

Volkswagen fans entered the arena

•  Main plattforms: Facebook and Twitter

•  Thousands of positive mentions, comments and tweets

•  Memes

https://www.facebook.com/Volkswagen

ObservationVOLKSWAGEN-FANS ACTED AS A BRAND PROTECTION FORCE

https://www.facebook.com/Volkswagen

Theory and Background

§  Highly emotional

§  Connected

§  Loyal

§  Communicative

§  Engaged

§  Missionary

§  Hypercritical

§  Possesive

SUPERFANS: AN ATTACK ON THE FAN-OBJECT IS AN ATTACK ON THE IDENTITY

Media studies: Fan-activism as sign of the new participatory culture (Jenkins, 2006)

Theory and BackgroundRUMOURS: THE IMPORTANCE OF EARLY AND TRUSTED SOURCES

Political science: Early and trusted sources have the highest impact on attitude-forming processes

(Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975, 1980)

Case study#MEXICOGATE – BATTLE OF FANDOMS

#mexicogate•  KLM publishes Tweet after

Dutch squad defeated Mexican team in World Cup 2014

•  Politically incorrect tweet leads to worldwide criticicm and crisis

#mexicogate•  Mexican actor Gael Garcia

Bernal sends a harsh tweet in response

#mexicogate•  Focus of analysis on June 29th

– 30th of @KLM-Tweets

•  Graphs shows number of users from decahose-data (10% sample of all tweets)

•  Peaks show response on KLM- and Garcia-Tweets

•  Figure shows general characteristic of firestorms: short lifetime

Number of Users per Day

#mexicogate•  Language from user-profile

•  User-Hashtag-network for dutch speakers

•  #nedmex removed

•  Small number of dutch speakers were activated by KLM

•  Few discussion, many retweets

NE Language Users – Reaction of dutch fans

#mexicogate•  Large number of spanish

speaking users activated by KLM

•  Typical firestorm characteristics: large quantities of negative word of mouth aimed at KLM, paired with intense indignation

ES Language Users – reaction of Mexican Fans

Findings•  KLM managed to activate dutch

football fans with initial tweet

•  Mexican actor activated his fans and fans of the mexican soccer team against KLM

•  Mexican fans executed the firestorm against KLM

•  Dutch fans didn‘t take up the fight to defend the brand, fans did not act as protection force

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mexico-and-dutch-fans-soak-up-the-atmosphere-prior-to-the-news-photo/451438732

Epilogue•  Mexian flight carrier spinned the

KLM-shitstorm into a positive message for his own brand

Next steps

§  Quantification of superfan-criteria

§  More detailed overtime-analysis of cause and effect

§  Comparing multiple firestorms with respect to fan involvement

PIZZA TALK IV: FIGHTING BACK SHITSTORMS WITH AN ARMY OF SUPERFANS

Our mission ...